Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing vultures. Vultures have a bad reputation. They hang out around dead things and people seem to think that’s strange. In truth, vultures are exceptionally important to our lives on this planet. There are two groups of vultures - those found in the Americas and those found throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe. These two groups are similar in their appearance and behavior, though they aren’t considered closely related to one another. Both groups are scavenging birds of prey meaning they both eat a lot of the same kinds of foods; they all soar high in the sky while searching out meals - people often describe this as a slow, methodical flight; and all vultures have strong stomach acids which can kill diseases present in their carrion prey. Vultures, however, also have some pretty discernible differences. All of the sixteen vulture species found throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe have the common name “vulture” however some of the seven vulture species found in the Americas have the common name “condor”. While we recognize not all the American vulture species have the common name condor, for simplicity's sake for the remainder of this episode we’ll refer to species from the Western hemisphere collectively as “condors” - just know they don’t all have this common name.

Some condors have a good sense of smell while other vultures do not. No eastern hemisphere vultures use smell to locate food and instead rely on sight while western hemisphere condors use either smell or sight. All condors have featherless faces; most of the other vultures are also bald headed, but some, such as the bearded vulture, have a feathery head and neck. It was originally believed that vultures have featherless heads in order to keep them clean while they pick through their meals; new evidence suggests that this bald headed style may also help with heat regulation. Another way condors help with heat regulation involves them defecating on themselves, an act that vultures from the Eastern hemisphere don’t perform. Condors are also unable to produce noises apart from hisses and grunts - these birds don’t have voice boxes; eastern hemisphere vultures, on the other hand do have voice boxes and are able to produce sounds. Condors do not build nests and instead use natural areas such as caves, crevices on cliffsides, and hollow logs as egg rearing locations; eastern hemisphere vultures do build nests and may reuse the same nest year after year while adding to it each year. Condors have weak feet which they can use to run while eastern hemisphere vultures have strong talons which they can use to grip. Something universal to all vultures, however, is that they aren’t present in Antarctica, which probably isn’t surprising, but they are also not found in Australia.

Most people know vultures for their behavior of eating dead animals, but they will also take garbage, young and small animals, reptiles like tortoises, and sometimes even excrement. Generally speaking, however, their main diet is dead things. They’re basically the clean up crew of the world. By eating deceased animals, vultures help stop the spread of diseases that could otherwise harm us and the other animals that share our environments. For example, the presence of vultures in an area can greatly reduce the spread of rabies.

Most vultures inhabit open areas and will roost on tall cliffs, in trees, or on the ground. When at a meal, they’ll gather in groups, called wakes, but a hyena, jackal, or coyote can scare them from a carcass. Vultures are long-lived, slow developing birds. It may take two years for a vulture pair to raise a single chick and they can live decades if left alone. Sometimes vultures are referred to as ‘buzzards’ but this is erroneous as buzzards are a type of hawk and vultures are… well.. vultures!

For more facts on vultures, check out the links in the description or give Shelby on Safari’s vulture video a watch. Thank you to Benjamin and Jdutton for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!